Yoga Webinar Series: December 2016 This video is posted online with the following chapter markers: Chapter 1. Yoga Overview & Class Prep Chapter 2. Planning Your Yoga Class Chapter 3. Movement Chapter 4. Communication Chapter 5. More on Preparation Description of graphical content is included between Description Start and Description End. Transcript Start [Music] Fade up from black. Animation: Text for TSBVI transform into braille cells for TSBVI. [Music face out] Fade to black. Chapter 1. Yoga Overview & Class Prep Kassy: Hi, welcome. Thank you so much for joining us today. Today's webinar is going to be on teaching yoga to children with multiple impairments. I'm Kassy Maloney, and I'm going to be helping you along with this webinar, so let's get started. Today you're going to learn what is yoga and what yoga isn't, for our purposes. [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: Today You will Learn Content: • WHAT is yoga. • HOW children with multiple impairments benefit from yoga • HOW to incorporate social, behavior, speech, and motor IEP goals into a yoga class for children with multiple impairments. • A yoga sequence that you can use TODAY! Description End: You'll also learn how children with multiple impairments benefit from yoga, and how to incorporate social, behavioral, speech, and motor IEP goals into a yoga class for children with multiple impairments. And so we'll be working on those as well, and you're going to get a yoga sequence that you can take, today, and go use it with your students, or maybe tomorrow, because it's the end of the day. This webinar is specifically for you. If you have students with atypical social development, or if you have students who have motor impairments, speech/language impairments, cognitive impairments, those are really the students that we are focusing on, the students who might be in a modified curriculum. They're going to have different strategies than students who are in an academic curriculum, so we're really focusing on that today. [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: Kassy (about me) Content: left-side photo: Figure 1 Kassy seated on a yoga mat holding her infant son, Roman. right-side text: • Former preschool teacher • TVI • Certified Orientation and Mobility Specialist • Registered Yoga Teacher (RYT200) • Certified Radiant Child Yoga Teacher • Mom of two Description End: For those of you guys who don't know me very well, I'm Kassy Maloney, a yoga teacher outside of the school. And I'm also an orientation and mobility specialist. And my best and favorite role is that I am a mom of two. So not only do I get to learn about movement and social development, and language, and how to work all this stuff into our students' lives, but now I'm watching it from the ground up, which is just so wonderful. [ Slide end: ] I can't explain it. So what is yoga? Well, yoga is the union of your body and your mind. [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: Yoga Content: • Union of the Body, Mind, and Breath • Yoga means “to unite”. • Form of exercise that uses the mind and breath to strengthen and calm the body • Uses ancient language, Sanskrit. Description End: And you go from your body and your mind through your breath. And that's why there's a lot of breath work, and we focus a lot on the breath. The word yoga means to unite. Yoga is a verb, you're doing something. Even though it was supposed to be-- it originally started as people sitting-- it was a verb to unite the body and the mind. In this day and age, we basically use it as a form of exercise, especially with our students. But you will notice that we still use some language from when yoga was first came about, called Sanskrit. It's just words in a different language. [ Slide end: ] They don't mean anything else other than, you know, words that you would use in any other language. So what yoga is not. Yoga is not a religious or spiritual practice, especially in our purposes. [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: For our purposes, yoga is NOT Content: • Yoga is NOT a religious or spiritual practice. • Does NOT include prayers, deism, or honoring any other presence besides thyse Description End: Yoga we don't include any prayers, or deism, or honoring of any other presence besides oneself. And so we do sometimes talk about, you know, honoring your own self and your own inner teacher, but that's the only person or presence that we include. [ Slide end: ] But yoga benefits everybody. As a form of exercise, it increases oxygenation in the blood, it increases the strength of the students, it increases their ability to handle stress. [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: Benefits of Yoga (for anyone) Content: left-side photo: Figure 2 Student standing on yoga mat in Warrior 1 pose. right-side text: • Increases oxygenation of the blood • Increases strength • Lowers stress levels • Increases self-efficacy skills • Increases happiness and health through exercise • Increases flexibility Description End: It also increases their happiness and their health, and their flexibility, and their self-efficacy skills, which we'll talk about later, as well. [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: HOW Children with Multiple Impairments Benefit from Yoga Description End: So in this program, we'll talk about how children with multiple impairments benefit from yoga in two separate ways. [ Slide end: ] One is movement, and one is communication. And you can see on your slide the area of movement and communication all have multiple things that they work on, but they're in different areas of the brain, and so I just have kind of separated it. So, we're going to talk about movement first, and then communication, but it all intertwines and it all gets used together. [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Content: left-side text: Movement • Body awareness • Spatial awareness • Motor planning • Proprioceptive awareness • Sensory efficiency right-side text: COMMUNICATION • Social skills • Speech/language skills • Behavior self-assessment • Self-Determination • Literacy Description End: So for movement, you could... be working on things like body awareness, spatial awareness, motor planning, proprioceptive awareness, and sensory efficiency. In the area of communication, we've got literacy skills, self-determination... behavior self assessment or emotional regulation, as well as speech/language skills and social skills. So, so many different things that you can incorporate into these yoga classes. [ Slide end: ] So let's define what your yoga class is going to look like. It can look like a variety of different things. [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: Let’s define yoga “class” Content: • Can look like a variety of experiences. • 1:1 • Many teachers, students • In a classroom for 5 minutes • In a pull out situation in a gym. Description End: We have classes that are one-on-one classes. We have classes that have many teachers and many students in a loud, boisterous environment. We have, sometimes, classes that are just in the classroom for a few minutes. Sometimes we have classes that are actually a pull-out situation for us, either it could be the whole class. We've also had teachers who do this in the district who also might pull the whole class, or different groups of students to make a yoga class, and therefore, then can use the space of a gym or another environment like that. Chapter 2. Planning Your Yoga Class [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: Planning Your Yoga Class Description End: So, when you're planning your yoga class, you want to think about three different specific things when you're planning. [ Slide end: ] The first is going to be your environment. The second will be your support or your ratios. And then the third is going to be your routine. In your yoga environment, this is what you're going to look for. [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: Yoga Environments – What to Look for Content: left-side text: • Lighting o Soft, but adequate lighting o Can turn off lights o No glare from windows • Sound o Quiet environment • Space o Free of obstacles, extra clutter center photo: Figure 3 Picture of floor space in an office. right-side photo: Figure 4 Students practicing yoga in an open space in a classroom. center photo: Figure 5 Picture of a gym, with a gym mat in the center of the floor. Description End: You want your yoga environment to have soft but adequate lighting. If you have students who have low vision or they have issues with glare, you want to make sure that you have something over the windows, or that you can make it so that they aren't experiencing the glare. [ Slide end: ] Also, if you have students who have retinitis pigmentosa, you probably want to keep the lights on, instead of turning them off, because any shadows or darkness may hinder their ability to see and enjoy the experience. And towards the end, you can turn off the lights. If you have students who don't have any vision, then you can also just turn off the lights. It just depends on what you'd like. You want to make sure that it is a place that is naturally kind of quiet. If you do it, like, in an area that's right next to the cafeteria, the outside noise can be really distracting for your students. So you want to make sure that it's... kind of quiet in the room itself and that the space is free of obstacles. [ Slide start: ] repeat previous slide So here in the bottom picture you'll see our OT/PT room. We actually clear those mats out-- those blue mats-- and we clear off the swings before we start our class. One of the other pictures has students that moved away from their desk area, and that's okay, as well. [ Slide end: ] For students with visual and multiple impairments, you really need to focus on your support, because you're going to need paraprofessionals or other professionals related service, or even peer buddies to help you. It works much better with this demographic if you have people who can work maybe one on one, or one or two, with the students. [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: Support Content: left-side text: Who: TA’s, Teachers, Related Service, Parents, sighted peers How Many: Shoot for 1:1, 1:2 max What To Do: Gather and train your support staff or peers prior to the start of your first class! right-side photo: Figure 6 Student in prone position, lifting her head. Teacher’s Aid is assisting the student by touching her palm to the top of the student’s hand. In the background, teachers and students talk. Description End: And so what you'll do, is you'll gather everybody around who can work with the students, and you're going to need to decide on... your ratios. You're going to need to decide on your roles and your responsibilities. You'll need to figure out your sequence, as well as your common goals. [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: Support Content: left-side text: Decide on: • Roles/ responsibilities of each support • Sequence • Common goals • Who will work with which student • Expectations of students right-side photo: Figure 6 Student in prone position, lifting her head. Teacher’s Aid is assisting the student by touching her palm to the top of the student’s hand. In the background, teachers and students talk. Description End: Cause if you have too many people, too many adults who have their own separate IEP goals that they're trying to implement in the class, sometimes it gets a little hairy. You want to make sure you stick to just a few things that everybody's working on, so that you can support everybody in doing what they need to get done, and have happen. And I also really like to figure out who's going to work with which student. So, that way you know, going in and then you can build a relationship with that student, instead of having to watch the entire class the whole time to figure out what everybody needs. [ Slide end: ] As far as your yoga routine goes, with this group of students it is so important that you have a routine. You can look on TSBVI's website, look at the information from Millie Smith, but it's laid out plain and simple how important routines are. [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: Yoga Routine Content: “A routine is an instructional strategy developed to increase the level of participation in activities for students who require consistency and repetition in order to learn.” – Millie Smith Description End: And in this case especially, if you have students who have atypical social development, they need a routine. They need to know what's coming up. They need to have the consistency. And you can sometimes add in a little bit of variety in that routine, but they need to know that there's going to be a little bit of a routine; or a little bit of variety within the routine. They need to know what to expect. [ Slide end: ] Your general yoga routine is going to look a lot like how it would look if you walked into a yoga class in a studio. You'll start by breathing. And then you can do your movements and activities. [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: General Yoga Routine Content: 1. Breathing 2. Movements a. Seated/Warmup b. Standing c. Cool down 3. Relaxation 4. Valediction Description End: And... you'll start with either seated or something warming up the spine, come up to standing, come back to seated, and then laying down, and then relaxation. And your ending your parting, a lot of times we say ohm, but you can say any sounds or words you want to, to say good bye. This is a good place to add in yoga activities, and we'll talk more about that in and just a few minutes, but your yoga routine will look something like that. [ Slide end: ] No matter what type of class you decide to do, no matter how you structure it. Some additional expectations that you can have are... to have the students store their belongings, gather their mats. They can take off their shoes. They can store their shoes. They can unroll their mats. Whatever level of independence they can have, you want to help them reach that level of independence. The same thing at the end of class. You can have the students start putting on their shoes. They can roll up their mats. They can store their mats. Sometimes we have weighted blankets on some our students; and we're teaching them to fold their weighted blankets, kind of like a towel. That's also another daily living skill that we get to infuse and incorporate into our class. And then, of course, having them exit the room as independently as possible, as well. Just some extra things that you can think about. For students with multiple impairments, this is where it gets fun. Because with that... type of student, you are the person they are looking to for their energy. You are going to come in, you're going to be super excited, you are going to have some fun games or songs planned. Students with visual, multiple impairments really enjoy yoga when it's fun and uplifting. And so you have to go in there and just be so excited about it, and know that they are going to be getting some amazing things out of it. You can consider a shorter yoga sequence. You don't have to necessarily even do seven to ten poses. You can do something like five or we'll talk about yoga stores or yoga activities later, where there's other things included into it. [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: Yoga for Young Students and Students with Multiple Impairments Content: left-side text: • Combine songs with movements. • Consider a short (7-10 pose) sequence. Less than 5 poses if you are incorporating games. • Use meaningful and motivating concepts. • Get other adults or sighted peers to help! • Keep it light hearted and fun! right-side photo: Figure 7 Student in wheelchair lifting her arms up above her head. Description End: You will want to combine songs with your movements, definitely. This is a no brainer-- they love, love, love songs, at least, adding some in here and there. And you can use meaningful and motivating concepts, things that they really like. So, if they really enjoy learning about butterflies, you can incorporate butterfly pose, things that- that really mean something to them. [ Slide end: ] This is where they get to experience it in a more symbolic fashion, and kind of start to bring it to life, and it's really fun. You definitely want to gather some adults or sighted peers to help, as we talked about. And just keep it super fun! Chapter 3. Movement Now we'll break it down into your movement section, and then we'll get into the communication section, in a little bit. So, movements-- students with multiple and visual impairments, as we all know, they have a lack of incidental learning. [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: Motor development for children with MIVI Content: left-side photo: Figure 8 Child with a visual impairment sitting on a yoga mat with his legs crossed, looking down. right-side text: • Lack of incidental learning. • Movement patterns may be delayed. • Spatial awareness may be delayed. • May have difficulty processing sensory info. Description End: And that really hinders their movements, because their movements are delayed-- like I said in the last webinar-- their movements are only delayed once the normed thing to do, is to start reaching out away from their body. [ Slide end: ] And that's because movement outside of yourself isn't safe;. And because they haven't watched other people do it. And so, they need direct instruction in order to be able to have these safe and encouraging times that they can move; and so that way they have a chance to really catch up and develop those motor patterns. They, also, might have some difficulty processing sensory information. And they might... their spatial awareness might also be delayed. [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: Your Yoga Sequence Description End: I have a little bit of a long clip for you, so bear with me. But I want to show you the yoga sequence. [ Slide end: ] Since we're breaking it down into movement, I want to show you what... our yoga sequence would look like with me doing it. It's a little clip. And I want to also show you how... a student would do it unmodified, and then also the adapted version. [ Video start: ] Kassy: This is the yoga sequence that you can do with any level of student. I'm going to show you the entire movement sequence that we would do for the unmodified, and the variation movements, and then, in a little bit, I'll also show you the movements that you would do for the adapted version of the movements for students who have to sit in a chair. And then, we will break it all down into the communication aspects of how you can incorporate this sequence into a yoga story, or other activities, so that way you can also foster communication, speech and language, behavior, and all that other good stuff. For the first movement, you're just going to have the students come into their mats, sit "crisscross yoga sauce," or Easy pose. And then bring their hands to their heart, and they will breathe. We like to breathe along with a song called "Ong Namo Guru Dev Namo" by Shakta Kaur Khalsa, off of her children's yoga music CD. And then the next movement is going to be Rock and Rolls. So, for Rock and Rolls, the students sit up, their feet are on the ground, and then they rock back, and they can roll up. Whatever level of rocking and rolling your students can do is great, just make sure that you assist them from behind instead of in front- in front of them. The next one is Butterfly, bringing the bottoms of your feet together. And then you just move your knees up and down like a butterfly. At one point in one of the songs, the butterfly might sleep, and then the butterfly might wake up, and maybe reach their arms up. The next part of it, we're going to come into standing. We're going to come into Elephant Pose. So, from the floor, we're going to come-- stand up, bring your hands together and keep your arms strong and straight, and then lean forward and move your arms left and right. In the elephant song, the elephant might lift their arms all the way up, and make a big sound. The next movement is Dinosaur Walk. So, depending on what your students can do, they might enjoy holding their ankles. They might enjoy bringing their hands to their knees. Or they might enjoy standing up and bringing their knees up to their hands, like so. And that ends our standing postures. We can come back to sitting down. In this sequence, we like to reference a song from Shakta Kaur Khalsa-- off the same CD called, Yogini Went to Sea." So, it would be, "Yogini went to sea, sea, sea," and we sit crisscross. And then, when she says, "Yogini went to sea, sea, sea," in the song, we tap our foreheads. "Yogini went to ji, ji, ji," you can cross your arms, or you can just tap your shoulders. "Yogini went to ni, ni, ni," same thing, either tap your knees, or, the more advanced is to cross. And "Yogini went to Ou a chi va," and you touch your belly. And then the song will bring you through the rest of that, and you can do "Sea ja ni, ou a chi va," along with the song. It's pretty fun. And then finally, we come to laying down, in a Twist. So, the students will lay back, and then their knees are bent, and they can bring their knees over to one side, while they look to the opposite side, and they also bring their hand down to that side. And then you'll want to do the same thing on the opposite side, so that both sides get a stretch. And then finally, time to Relax. This is the hardest part for all of us. Have the students lay on their backs, their feet are straight, their legs are straight, their arms are relaxed by their sides. And then to end class, they will sit up, again come into Easy pose, or crisscross yoga sauce. We like to say "namaste," but you can say anything that would work for you and your students. Maybe they make a fun buzzing noise, or maybe they just breathe, whatever works. And you say thank you for coming to yoga. So, let's go through that same sequence, but this time you have a student who is in a chair, either because they are more comfortable in a chair, or because they can't get out of the chair. Maybe they are in a wheelchair, or maybe they have cerebral palsy and they need to be seated and not sit down, stand up, sit down, you know what I mean. So same thing. We'll start sitting in Easy pose. When you're in a chair, this is your easy pose. And you do your breathing. If they can bring their hands up to their hearts, that's great. Maybe one hand. Maybe you come in and assist them. Whatever level of independence they need, just do what works for them. So, they'll be breathing. And then Rock and Rolls, you're obviously not going to have your student lean back too far. They could practice just moving if they're not all the way back in their seat. Or you can just have them arch their back and round their back, arch and round. That will help keep them included in the class, but it doesn't actually have them rocking or rolling forward. And for Butterfly, you have a couple different options here. You can have them move their knees, as much as they can, out and in. If they have... wheelchairs that have feet, you might be able to move their whole leg out, in. You're going to have to really just find what works for them. A lot of times we just have the students move their knees out and in. Or if they need proprioceptive information you bring your hand to the outside of their knees, so that way they can feel a little bit more of what they're doing. And then for Elephant, they can bring their hands in front of them. Again, any level of independence here is wonderful. Bring the hands in front of them, they can lean down, and then move side-to-side for Elephant. Dinosaur Walk looks very similar to the other one. They can either hold onto their knees, or bring their knees up to tap their hands. Yogini went to Sea, Sea, Sea. The same thing, they're just in a chair; "sea, sea, sea; ji, ji, ji; ni, ni, ni;" and then, everybody's favorite, "ou a chi va." And then... for Twist; super simple, you just have them twist over to the left, and then they can twist over to the right, as well. For Relaxation, this one you just want to have them be as relaxed as possible. You can use some lotion or some soothing sounds. Find what works for your student and something that doesn't... intrude upon any other students that are there. You know, if they have an issue with smells, but as long as they are sitting and they are relaxed, that works. And then at the end we will have them bring their hands to their hearts, and say, "Namaste," or whatever sounds work. [ Video end: ] Kassy: So that shows you the movements of your yoga sequence. No excuses, now you have one, and you can go and use it, starting tomorrow. Gather some friends, gather some... sighted peers for your students, and you're good to go. But we're going to also break it down into the typical levels of assistance, and how do you teach these movements to students with visual and multiple impairments. I was speaking with Linda Hagood a few weeks ago and she said something that was just genius; and it really rings true. For students with visual and multiple impairments, a good idea is to "prompt once and then make it happen." If you prompt them over, and over, and over again, trying the verbal level of assistance, then-- and they're not getting it, and their body doesn't move as fast, and they need some more processing time-- you may not want to go to sound cues, before you go to physical modeling. You might just want to start with physical modeling if you know that student. Or you might want to start with physical assistance, depending upon where they are. So this was in the... workshop last time. I won't go too much into it, but I do want to show you a real click-- quick clip of a class doing the sequence that we just talked about... with different levels of assistance. What you're going to see here are four different students having four different levels of assistance. The first student, in the front, with the "Naughty or Nice Santa" shirt, he has cerebral palsy. He can't move his right arm. And he has some issues with his right leg. So he gets physical assistance. The next student with the red shirt, he needs nothing. He's got this down, and even does more advanced moves that I don't know who taught him, but he just does it. The student after that in the orange shirt, he has low vision, so he watches, and he likes to have the person do physical modeling, and then he does it. He doesn't necessarily need to be touched all the time, but he wants to see you doing it. And then the student that I'm working with... he-- sound cues don't work for him. Verbal cues don't work for him. And so, in order to make sure that he is successful, I pick and choose which verbal, or which... level of assistance that I'm going to use. But most of the time I am helping him do it, or I am modeling it physically, for him. So, you'll get to see a lot in this one little clip. [ Video start: ] [Indiscernible] [multiple voices] All: [singing] Dinosaur walk. Dinosaur, dinosaur, dinasour walk... Ba dump, ba dump. Ba dump, ba dump. Ba dump, ba da da da da dump, ba dump. Ba dump, ba dump. Ba dump, ba dump. Da da da dump, ba dump. Wooo! Student: Good job, Michelle! Staff: Can we do that one more time? Staff: Yes! That would be great. [student vocalizing] [Indiscernible] Staff: Okay, here we go. CD player: Dinosaur walk, dinosaur walk... Student: Going back. Staff: Here we do, keep walking. Big dinosaur steps. All: [singing] Ba dump, ba da da da da dump, ba dump. Ba dump, ba dump. Ba dump, ba dump. Da da da dump, ba dump. Wooo! [ Video end: ] Kassy: There was a lot going on with that one, right? And that's how it is with a lot of our classes. [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: Levels of Adaptation Content: left-side photo: Unmodified Figure 10 Student standing, bent forward and holding his ankles. center photo: Variation Figure 11 Student holding onto her knees as she lifts one knee. right-side photo: Adapted Figure 12 Student in chair lifting her knee. Her teacher kneels beside her. Description End: I want to touch on the modified, and then the variation and the adapted version. You have different options for different levels of each pose. And I keep saying whatever works for your student, because they are all so different, that you really do just need to get to know them, and figure out what level they are at, and what they need, and what they would benefit from. Here, we have three students all doing the same pose. And it looks completely different. It's dinosaur walk, it's exactly what we just did. And it doesn't look anything like what my students did, and that's okay. The unmodified version would be a student bent over holding their ankles and walking forward and back on their mat. The variation would be the student either holding their knees or bringing their knees up and tapping. And then the adapted version would be a student seated. [ Slide end: ] I just wanted to really show you that, before we get into the next clip, because the next clip will have... Carolina working with Jasmine. And she is helping the student with hand-under-hand, and she's helping the student... infuse some literacy and technology skills, as well. So, there's just so much going on in that one clip I wanted to share this with you, first. So, yeah, we can watch the clip now. [ Video start: ] Carolina: Let's push it. Push it to get it started. [music] Here we go. Yeah. [ singing ] Fly like a butterfly, fly like a butterfly, -- stretch your arms -- in the sky. [ singing ] Fly like a butterfly, fly like a butterfly, fly like a butterfly in the sky. [music] [Indiscernible] CD player: Sleep like a butterfly, sleep like a butterfly, sleep like a butterfly in the night. Carolina: Sleeeeep... [singing] Sleep like a butterfly in the night. [ Video end: ] Kassy: So, that was a clip of Carolina working with her student Jasmine, and using hand-under-hand. And their butterfly looks... nothing like I had shown you before with the knees. They move their arms out. So, as you can see there are lots of different variations for movement. We're going to just... show you a real quick IEP goal that you can use to... help support your- your yoga class. [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: Sample IEP Goal Content: Example: Within a functional movement routine, given 1 verbal prompt, Student will demonstrate body awareness by performing a new movement (i.e. reaching her arm up, lifting her leg) on 4 out of 5 attempts. Description End: And this is just one that I, kind of, made up on the fly. I'm not the guru of IEP goals. So, you write them however you need to write them. But I just wanted to show you that you can use your IEP and infuse it into your yoga classes. [ Slide end: ] Chapter 4. Communication And so, now we can go to communication. I spoke a lot with Linda Hagood, who wrote the book "Better Together," and a lot of this information comes from her. I'm not a speech/language pathologist, so please forgive me if I say any words wrong, or any incorrect concepts. But... I really hope that everybody who is a speech/language pathologist, or an administrator, that you can get a good sense of how to support all of the speech/language, social, behavioral, literacy... skills, also within your yoga class. [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: Communication development in children with Multiple and Visual Impairments Content: left-side photo: Figure 13 Linda Hagood holding a pose with a student. right-side text: • Given lot of indiscriminatable chatter. • Are taught that conversations begin with question-sounds. • Not as many turns for communication as adults. • Often learn to wait instead of initiating. Description End: For students who have visual and multiple impairments, they have a lot of issues with communication-- just from early on, because they are given a lot of indiscriminatable chatter. And they're also, through that chatter, they're taught that their conversation begins with question sounds. A lot of times, we'll ask students and young children questions. And so they often will start to mimic those question sounds, and not necessarily understand that you say a declarative sentence. And then, they're also not given the turn taking as much as adults are. And... one of the kickers is, that they're often taught, inadvertently, to wait instead of initiating. And a lot of times it's of no fault of anybody's, but it just happens. [ Slide end: ] And people tend to rush them through things. And then they want to use a lot of language, or ask a lot of questions, or give them a lot of direction. And they may not want to intrude on their space. But... what happens is that the child just gets a lot of chatter, and doesn't necessarily know what to do with it. And so they just wait. And so, one way that you can help that is through yoga, and facilitating communication with children with visual and multiple impairments. In our classes, we like to include the students' learning medium. We like to include yoga stories and different activities. [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: Facilitate communication in children with Multiple Impairments Content: left-side text: • Include student’s learning medium. • Include yoga stories and activities. • Allow the students to have as much control over their own movements and stories as possible. • Facilitate turn taking. • Include concept development. right-side photo: Figure 14 Carolina and a student seated, facing one another. The palms of their hands are clasped in front of their bodies. Description End: We will allow the students to have as much control over their own movements... and their own decision making as possible. And we help facilitate turn taking, and also include concept development. And we do a lot of that through yoga activities. [ Slide end: ] So, your yoga class, it might just be movements, and that's totally cool, or it might be a series of activities that also includes some moving, and that's okay, too. [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: Include Literacy Medium Content: left-side photo: Tactile Symbol Strip, Figure 15 Cover of Tactile Symbol Strip for a Yoga Routine. Figure 16 Inside of Tactile Symbol Strip of a Yoga Routine right-side photo: Braille or Large Print, Figure 17 Braille and Large Print Document of Yoga Routine Description End: For your literacy medium, this is one that we actually use. I have a book, and that's what we use with this exact class. We use a tactile symbol strip. And then I have another class, where they use... braille, and some of the students use the large print. So, sometimes they like it in book form, sometimes they like it in list form, and sometimes you can also write a yoga story, which I will go into. Okay. We can go ahead and watch this clip. This is wonderful. [ Video start: ] Carolina: Yes, that's the one. Yeah, let me show you. We also have the... switch. We have the switch right here. You want to feel the switch? When it's time to push it, you can help me. Mm-hmm. You can help me do it. [Indiscernible] [whispering] Now, we're going to put your yoga symbol right here on the table. Okay? We'll put it right here. Good. That's where it's gonna be. And over here is your switch. The first song is going to be "Ohmmmmm." All right. Let's push it. Push the switch so we can start. Computer audio: [Indiscernible] Carolina: Good. Yes. [singing] Ohmmmm. [Indiscernible] So, in that clip you got to see a one-on-one class with a student using one symbol at a time, and then also facilitating her communication by pressing her auditory button. So, yoga stories-- we can stay on this slide for just a second while I explain a little bit about what yoga stories are. [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: How to Facilitate a Yoga Story Content: • Include students in writing the story. • Braille names of yoga poses. Have the students each choose a yoga pose card and include it in the story. • Have the student write the yoga story prior to class. • Allow students to teach the yoga pose if they want to. Description End: They are based on social stories, but they're used in the yoga class. And they help facilitate creative and symbolic thinking. For students with... autism, or maybe on the spectrum, they oftentimes have a hard time with pretend play and symbolic thinking; and they need many opportunities to practice the art of make believe. But before a child can... learn and understand play in a meaningful way, with dolls or action figures, they really need to understand it within their bodies first. And so they need it on a more basic level that-- in a way that their body can represent what's going on. Even if, for example, we have... an activity, that I'll show you later, that they may not fully understand what everything is, like a mountain or a volcano. And that's okay, you're still teaching them some concepts about... the different concept, if that makes sense. [ Slide end: ] So, for a yoga story, you can either write the yoga story on behalf of, or with the students. It depends on your goals and how much time you have, and what your role with that student is. And you can use either something, or a theme that they might actually be going through, like the first day of school, or being nervous. There's a great yoga story in the Better Together book, called "The Nervous Butterfly." Or you can use just a regular story about anything make believe. Whatever works for your students. And then they will act out that story. So the story's going to include different poses and different actions that you would see as yoga poses. For example, like, you could do Down Dog, or you could do a Warrior and have your warrior be a part of the yoga story. Or your Butterfly could come across a tree. Things like that. Some things that we also do are, like, blowing in the wind, or running really fast; different actions and different movements. They don't have just to be yoga poses that you include or incorporate. In order to write a yoga story, you want to include... the students in writing the story, if at all possible. And you can braille the names of the yoga poses, and then have them get a yoga pose either out of a hat, or a container bucket, and use that to help them write the story, so that they have a little bit of a prompt. Or you can have the student write the story with you before class and bring it to class. Or teach the yoga pose if they want to do that. Just some ideas to help you facilitate your own yoga stories. And we also have some yoga activities that you can do with your students. These are all from Better Together. You can find them in, I believe it's chapter seven of Linda's book. [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: Yoga Activities (from Better Together) Content: left-side text: • Extra Cons Trees in the Forest • Passing Energy • Rock & Roll Down a Mountain • Volcanoes (Emotion Meter) right-side photo: Figure 18 Linda Hagood holds a pose with a student. Another staff member and student do the same beside them. Description End: The Trees in the Forest really teaches the students that it's better to do things together rather than alone. So, for that one you will teach the students how to do tree pose, and then they'll do it all together, kind of like in the picture, where they're holding on to each other. There's also a game calling Passing Energy, where you sit around in a circle, and everybody holds onto... their next door neighbor's hand; and then one person starts and picks a sound, and then they pass the energy either to the left or the right, squeezing that person's hand. And it'll go around-- that same sound-- and then the next student will get a chance to do it; and so on and so forth, until everybody's had a chance to make up their own sound. And everybody's had a chance to listen and repeat that sound for their peer. And then Rock and Roll Down a Mountain and Volcanos, both use this amazing tool that Linda created, called the emotion meter. And the emotion meter really helps the students learn behavioral regulation. [ Slide end: ] And that behavioral regulation-- so with the emotion meter, it... will give a number for different emotions. So, for like zero, you're sleeping. For 100, you are just so boisterous, you're angry, and you have-- you're really loud. And so, you can go through the emotion meter teaching the students, [whispering] Oh, we're at- we're at a ten. Oh, we're at a 20. [louder] Oh, we're at a 50. Oh, we're at a 70. [shouting] Oh, we're at a hundred! And go up that way. Of course, you can also go down. And the Rock and Roll Down a Mountain, you'll be in Rock pose, and you start off slow, and then you go faster and faster [faster & louder], and build up your energy, build up your energy, build up your energy, [shouting] until you're at the end! And then you can also lower it down. The Volcano is the opposite. You start in Down Dog, which in the book is considered a mountain or a volcano, and then you go from 100 all the way down. And you use your body to demonstrate how you're feeling. Here are some... yoga activities that Linda did, and you can see here just how wonderful she is with the students. [ Video start: ] [Indiscernible] Linda: The snakes went back in their holes, and they curled up. And they relaxed, after they scared the butterfly. 100. 90. 80. [softer] 70. 60. 50. [softer] 40. 30. [silence] Now, we slowly come up. Did you all relax? I did. [Indiscernible] Okay. Can you read us the next part, Maggie? After the dinosaur-- I mean the butterfly was so, so scared. He went to see his friend, who was who? Student: Yogini. Linda: The yogini. A yogini is a woman who knows a lot about yoga. So, should we sing the yogini song? Here's the Yogini song. Yogini. [singing] Yogini went to the sea, sea, sea. Student: Sea, sea, sea. [Indiscernible] [ Video end: ] Kassy: From the clip with Linda, you got to see her showing one of the activities, and you also got to see her using the literacy medium of two different students in order to help facilitate their learning of how to read, and literacy in itself. [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: Sample IEP Goals Content: Communication: By (date), Given structured routines, sign language and braille, Student will make decisions about her daily life when given 2-3 options by scheduling weekly activities on her daily calendar by placing a braille card on her calendar and/or verbalizing her choice 4 out of 5 opportunities. By (date), given support of functional routines, contracted braille, verbal instruction, modeling, and sign language, Student will ask questions, request assistance, and improve interaction skills including greetings in 4 of 5 opportunities. Social/ Emotional: By (date), given staff support, Student will improve his social emotional skills by practicing a calming strategy when feeling stressed or anxious 4 out of 5 occasions. Description End: Here are some sample IEP goals that I pulled and just made them confidential. And I pulled these directly from our program right now, as it is. And again, we are not the end all be all of IEP goals, but I just want to show you some examples of things that you can use to help facilitate your classes. So for example... by whatever date-- this is a goal, so it would be the end of the IEP year-- given structured routines, sign language and braille, the student will make decisions about her daily life when given two to three options, by scheduling weekly activities on her calendar by placing a braille card on her calendar and/or verbalizing her choice four out of five opportunities. I have seen this used within a yoga routine in itself many times, and it works wonderfully. The second one is also a communication goal, and it says given support of functional routines, constructed braille, verbal instruction, modeling, and sign language, the student will ask questions, request assistance, and improve interaction skills including greetings in four out of five opportunities. For social and emotional, in this case, by the end of the IEP year, given staff support, the student will improve his social, emotional skills by practicing a calming strategy when feeling stressed or anxious, four out of five occasions. And then there is one other that I didn't include in here, but it seemed so perfect that I just have to tell you about it. It would be by whatever date, the student will use assistive technology devices to complete functional activities related to his adult life with three or fewer prompts, four out of five opportunities. How perfect is that? [ Slide end: ] So, those are just some ways that you can use your supporting documents to really infuse all of the skills that your students need into a really fun and motivating class for them. This should be an experience that they enjoy, and that you help facilitate their enjoyment and their learning. This should be something that they look forward to doing every week with you. And it should also be something that will help create a really nice environment, or relationship building situation for you and your student, or for your student and other students around them. It is really, really good for all of those things, not just movement. And even not just communication, but all of the different areas in the brain. And with the self determination-- we didn't touch on it here-- but self determination happens when you do something for over 12 weeks, at least once a week. So if you can do it for an entire semester, you are naturally building their self determination and self efficacy skills. Chapter 5. More on Preparation But it's not all rainbows and unicorns and chocolate chip pancakes. There are some other things that you need to think about, and there are some obstacles that you might have to face in order to get your yoga class off the ground. For example, if you are not one of those amazing administrators that are on this call right now, but you're working with an administrator who may not really understand the benefits of yoga class, and they may not want students pulled from any academic time, or if there's state testing happening, you really need to figure out how you can work with the administrator, and how you can work with your supporting teachers and TAs, and even your sighted peers, in order to make this happen. And it might just take a little bit of thinking about it. [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: Other Things to Think About Content: • Support from administration • Support from paraprofessionals • Extra time to gather materials, declutter room, etc.. • Student ratios • Organization of room/ Layout of mats Description End: It might just take a little bit of, you know, sitting down with some people and showing them the data about students, and how yoga is really affecting them in the schools. You'll also want to think about where you're going to have this class, and how far away is it from the student's actual class. Is it going to be just down the hall, or is it going to be in another building? Are you going to have to move a lot of students? Are you going to have to move a lot of things within the room? I know a lot of times we don't really have the most adequate spaces to teach in, and so you might have to plan your day, in order to get there early enough so that way you can move some things out of the way. [ Slide end: ] And so that way, when the students show up the space is cleared and it is an environment that they are ready to learn in. Also, your student ratios. You need to make sure that the students who are in this class are appropriate for it. You might also need to talk with the teachers, or if your students are in general ed, or a resource class, and you don't necessarily feel like all of the students are the best fit for the class, you might need to speak with them about why they may, or may not, have all of the students, or some of the students. And so again, that collaboration. And making sure that you have enough support to help you. Because, as you noticed before, in the clip where we have four teachers and four students, it can still get kind of loud. It's not always the most calming experience. And if you want it to be any sort of calming, or any sort of controlled environment, you really do need the help. So, make sure that you gather some friends and some people to help you. Parents, if they're around, they would also be wonderful support people to help your class. The organization of the room, the layout of the room, that is really important. [ Slide start: ] repeat previous slide And you want to also make sure that everybody is on the same page before you start your yoga class. Make sure that everybody has a good understanding of what's going on, because, as I like to refer to it, as the "first pancake" yoga class. [ Slide end: ] You know how you make a pancake and the first one comes out not exactly how you wanted it? Well, sometimes your yoga classes can come out like that, too. And so, you want to just make sure that you have everything ready to go. You have your tactile symbols ready. You have your Braille list ready. Or you know what kind of theme or topic you're going to talk about in your yoga story. Or you have your activities, and have gotten the Better Together book. Or you've looked up all the songs that you really want for your yoga class. You may need to have some softer, soothing songs at the beginning, or at the end of your yoga class, after everybody is getting everything together; at the beginning, as kids come into the room. A lot of my students, they like to have a welcome song, we call it. And it just lets them set the environment a little bit, rather than just hearing the shuffle. And now, I know we only have a few minutes left, but I would love to open up the floor to you guys, and see if you have any questions, and also I want to encourage you, if anybody has any questions and you have the answer, please, by all means, give us your answers and give us your help. [ Slide start: ] Description Start: Title: Q&A Discussion Content: left-side text: • Leave your question in the comments so we can help you. • How can you bring yoga to your students? • What are some obstacles you might face? Let’s problem solve together. right-side photo: Figure 19 Student seated with her legs crossed and her hands at her heart. Description End: What obstacles do you foresee happening that we can help problem solve right now? Kassy: I don't know about a TSBVI IEP bank. Can anybody answer that? [ Slide end: ] Yes. You can call it a yoga class if you aren't a certified yoga teacher. You can also just call it a movement class. Kassy: "Cause any injury." Yeah, so Julia, in the book for students with visual impairments, the one that I wrote, every single pose has precautions. Also, you want to make sure that you know all of the precautions that the student can do, and you want to make sure that they are approved for any sort of movement activity. For that person, you can talk to their parents. You could talk to their caseworker, or their advisor, and their PE teacher. Make sure to touch base with their PE teacher, because that person would probably know. But there are precautions for every- every yoga pose. And before you guys go, I do want to let you know that once you start teaching yoga classes, please email me. Linda Hagood and I are going to start gathering people to share information and knowledge. We want to be able to help our students, and help every- everybody. And we all do it differently, we all see different successes, and different things that we could do better. So, we just want to start gathering people who do this, so that way we can all share information. So email me and we'll get connected. Okay, everybody. Have a wonderful rest of your day. Don't hesitate to email me if you have any questions, okay? I'll talk to you guys soon. [Music] Fade up from black. Animation: Text for TSBVI transform into braille cells for TSBVI. [Music face out] Fade to black.